The AEA Interviews Ted Miguel About the Replication Crisis

[From the article “Making economics transparent and reproducible” by Tyler Smith, published on the American Economic Association’s website]

“The AEA spoke with Miguel about the replication problem in economics and how the next generation of researchers is embracing new tools to make the profession more credible.”

…

“AEA: There’s a growing debate about the credibility of the social sciences, what some are calling a “replication crisis.” What kind of challenge do you think the social sciences and economics are facing?”

“Miguel: There’s been increasing evidence really across the social sciences, and economics is no exception, that publication bias is a real concern.”

…

“AEA: What’s the one problem you think we really need to tackle?”

“Miguel: I do think that an absolute, fundamental improvement which has already occurred to a large degree has been sharing of data and statistical code. … The concern around that is that more and more people are using proprietary data. So the trend towards open data and data sharing, which has been so strong, is sort of stalling out a little bit right now. And it’s not clear exactly how to solve that problem…”

To read the article and/or listen to a full-length audio version of the interview, click here.